Videos by Workshop 5: Spatial Models of Micro and Macro Systems

Migration is a widely used strategy for dealing with seasonal environments, yet little work has been done to understand what ultimate factors drive migration. Here I will present joint work with Iain Couzin, where we have developed a spatially explicit, individual-based model in which we can evolve behavior rules via simulations under a wide range of ecological conditions ...

In the seventies, biologists Maynard Smith and Price used concepts from game theory to describe animal conflicts. Their work is at the origin of the popular framework of evolutionary game theory. Space is another component that has been identified as a key factor in how communities are shaped. Spatial game models are therefore of primary interest for biologists and sociolo...

We present a method for obtaining survival and coexistence results for a class of interacting particle systems. This class includes: a stochastic spatial Lotka-Volterra model of Neuhauser and Pacala, a model for the evolution of cooperation of Ohtsuki, Hauert, Lieberman and Nowak, and a continuous time version of a non-linear voter model of Molofsky, Durrett, Dushoff, Grif...

This will be something of an introductory talk that considers two types of spatial models used in population biology, and connections between them. Interacting particle systems can be thought of as "microscopic" level descriptions of populations, including interactions between discrete individuals and stochasticity. Reaction-diffusion equations provide determinis...

The problem of how often to disperse in a randomly fluctuating environment has long been investigated, primarily using patch models with uniform dispersal. Here, we consider the problem of choice of seed size for plants in a stable environment when there is a trade off between survivability and dispersal range. For this we analyze a stochastic spatial model to study the co...

Continuum, partial differential equation models are often used to describe the collective motion of cell populations, with various types of motility represented by the choice of diffusion coefficient, and cell proliferation captured by the source terms. Previously, the choice of diffusion coefficient has been largely arbitrary, with the decision to choose a particular line...

Organisms reproduce in environments that vary in both time and space. Even if an individual currently resides in a region that is typically quite favorable, it may be optimal for it to "not put all its eggs in the one basket" and disperse some of its off spring to locations that are usually less favorable because the eff ect of unexpectedly poor conditions in one...

In joint work with Brett Melbourne we have studied highly replicated spatial population dynamics of flour beetles in a lab setting. I will describe the results of experiments on single species and spatial spread, and corresponding models. The models have to incorporate stochasticity of different forms to provide a good match to the data. In particular, demographic heteroge...

Postharvest diseases, especially those caused by fungi, can cause considerable damage to harvested apples in controlled atmosphere storage. Fungicides are used to control the disease, but resistance to fungicides is increasing and there is pressure by consumers and ecologists to reduce reliance on chemical controls. There is some evidence that physical conditions related t...

There is a long history of research on the mathematical modeling of animal populations, largely built on diffusion models. The classical literature, however, is inadequate to explain observed spatial patterning, or foraging and anti-predator behavior, because animals actively aggregate. This lecture will discuss models of animal aggregation, and the role of leadership in c...

Dispersal and the resulting genetic exchange between populations in spatially heterogeneous environments is typically expected to impede adaptation to local conditions. However, theory suggests some cases where this paradigm breaks down, such as when dispersal provides demographic support and gene flow enhances adaptive capacity to populations experiencing variable populat...

For the past decade, Internet worms (a type of malicious software similar to a virus) spreading through networks have been using biological strategies, such as hierarchical dispersal and adaptive strategies, to spread more efficiently among susceptible computers. There is a direct analogy between susceptible computers on the Internet and susceptible hosts in community-stru...

In the evolving voter model we choose oriented edges (x,y) at random. If the two individuals have the same opinion, nothing happens. If not, x imitates y with probability 1-α, and otherwise severs the connection with y and picks a new neighbor at random (i) from the graph, or (ii) from those with the same opinion as x. Despite the similarity of the rules, the...

The MBI receives major funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences and is supported by The Ohio State University.
If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact webmaster@mbi.osu.edu